Language Barrier - (Part - 4)
Pondering Mind
I am herein reproducing the article of Brother Ayman in parts which one could access in full at the following link: http://www.free-minds.org/articles/science/language.htm
Language Barrier - (Part - 4)
The most prominent alleged "pre-quranic" poet is Imru' Al-Qays. The following is an example of his poetry:
The mere fact that a modern Arabic reader is able to read the above poem without any difficulty raises suspicion about its authenticity. Many of the alleged poets were supposedly from Southern Arab tribes. For example, Imru' Al-Qays was alleged to be from the Southern Arab tribe of Kinda and thus would have spoken and produced poems in an Old Southern Arabic (OSA) dialect such as Sabaic that would have been difficult to understand and not the familiar Northern Arabic dialect of the great reading that we see above.
Anyone who has carefully studied alleged Jahiliya poetry knows that Jahiliya poems, including the above, are amongst the least artful works of literature. All one has to do to utter Jahiliya poetry is to follow the rhyme. That is why you can easily take a Jahiliya poem and insert verses in between or rearrange the order of the verses without losing any of the non-existent author personality.
Even more shocking is that the passages marked with a red box occur almost word for word in the great reading (54:1, 54:29, 54:31, 54:46, 93:1-2, 21:96, 37:61) and this has given ammunition to detractors of the great reading. Detractors of the great reading claim that the prophet copied from Imru' Al-Qays. They refer to the above alleged Jahilya poem verses and to dubious traditions such as the following:
"Fatima (the daughter of the prophet) was repeating a verse and was overheard by the daughter of Imru' Al-Qays, who said: 'O that's what your father has taken from one of my father's poems, and calls it something that has come down to him out of heaven.'"
Despite this, traditionalists have not tried to refute that Imru' Al-Qays said such poems and have continued to trust the authenticity of alleged Jahiliya poems.
It is time for people to stop trusting alleged Jahiliya poems because there is categorical physical archeological evidence that the most prominent Jahiliya poet, Imru' Al-Qays is a fictional character based on a much earlier real Arab king.
This evidence is provided by a famous inscription called the Namara inscription. Here is a translation of the Namara inscription:
"This is the funerary monument of Imru al-Qays, son of 'Amr, king of the Arabs; and[?] his title of honor was Master of Asad and Madhhij. And he subdued the Asad-s, and they were overwhelmed together with their kings, and he put to flight Ma(dh)hij thereafter, and came driving them into the gates of Najran, the city of Shammar, and he subdued Ma'add, and he dealt gently with the nobles of the tribes, and appointed them viceroys, and they became phylarchs for the Romans. And no king has equaled his achievements. Thereafter he died in the year 223 on the 7th day of Kaslul. Oh the good fortune of those who were his friends."
[Source: Bellamy, J. (1985). "A New Reading of the Namarah Inscription," Journal of the American Oriental Society 105.1, 34.]
The inscription talks about a powerful king named Imru' al-Qays who had great achievements and must have been liked by his people.
The Nabatean year 223 corresponds to the year 328AD. The alleged Jahiliya poet Imru' al Qays, is reported to have died over 200 years later in the year 540AD.
We seemingly have two personalities by the same exact name: Imru' al Qays, and both are famous figures. This is how traditionalists explained away the vast discrepancy in the dates.
However, the traditionalist explanation is not possible because the astonishing similarities between the alleged poet and the person described by the inscription do not stop there. The 328 AD real Imru' al Qays (since we have archeological evidence to back up his existence) shares other striking similarities with the fictional 540 AD Imru' al Qays, the alleged pre-quranic Arabic poet.
For instance, both are royals, the 328AD Imru' al-Qays is called the "king of the Arabs" in the inscription and traditionalists allege that the other Imru' al-Qays was the son of the last king of Kinda, an ancient Arabian tribe. When his father was murdered, he too became king.
The 328AD Imru' al-Qays fought a tribe called Asad. The other Imru' al-Qays was banished by his father king because of his passionate poetry then his tribe went to war with a rival tribe called: Bani Asad! Who murdered his father!
Both Imru' al Qays 1 and 2 defeated their Asad enemies.
Both the 328AD Imru' al Qays and the 540AD Imru' al Qays tried to unite the tribes of Arabia.
Both the 328AD Imru' al Qays and the 540AD Imru' al Qays made alliances with the Romans to defeat their tribe's enemies.
We know that the 328AD Imru' al Qays existed because of the physical archeological evidence of the Namara inscription. We only know about the 540AD Imru' al Qays through stories and poems that were reported in the 8th-9th century AD.
Those striking similarities cannot be a coincidence but is exactly what one would expect from the storytellers as the real story of the real Imru' Al-Qays is turned across generations into the legend of Imru' Al-Qays and sprinkled with poetry and embellished to make it more entertaining. This completely demolishes the historicity of the 540AD Imru' Al-Qays and the entire traditional account of the Jahilya period and its poetry.
The fictitious Imru' al Qays of 540AD is regarded as the inventor of the "qasida" or classical ode. His poems are considered to be the most prominent, famous, and reliable. He is also considered the greatest poet of the Mu'allaqat, the poems that are worthy of hanging on the alleged Kaaba. Hence, if his historicity turns out to be problematic, this would have far reaching consequences for the historicity of all Jahiliya poetry and even the alleged proper name Kaaba, since Jahiliya poetry is the only supposed "pre-quranic" source for it.
Traditionalists have countered the doubts in the authenticity of Jahiliya poetry by arguing that the oral transmission of Jahiliya poetry was like the transmission of the great reading and hence both are preserved in the same way.
Fortunately, those traditionalist arguments are not grounded in reality. Unlike alleged Jahiliya poetry where there is a complete absence of manuscripts and inscriptions, there are many early manuscripts of the great reading that can be dated to the first century of the new era. Some of those manuscripts even show faded text where the same words have been re-written over. Thus, the original text of the great reading can be dated to an even earlier period. Given that there is only a slim probability of survival of such manuscripts, the fact that we have so many indicates that they came from a very large population. Moreover, there are many rock inscriptions of parts of the great reading that are dated to the first century of the new era. More importantly, the great reading itself tells us that it is a "kitab". The word "kitab" means a "written document".
Traditionalists have also contended that a vast conspiracy was needed for the fabrication of Jahiliya poetry on such a scale. However, in reality there is no need for a conspiracy. The natural law of supply and demand negates the need for a conspiracy.
Hollywood produces movies because there is demand for them not because of any sinister conspiracy. A few hundred years from now some naïve folks that lack common sense may watch such movies and think that they are home movies depicting the lives of actual people.
Poetry was told by storytellers for the purpose of entertainment. Hence, unlike later poets, all alleged Jahiliya poets have very interesting and amazing life stories. The poems are weaved into the stories and advance the plot line in such a way so that a poem is always uttered at the opportune moment. Hence, like in a Bollywood movie where the hero and a chorus of singers and dancers is always ready at the right moment in the story to spontaneously delight the audience with a song, alleged Jahiliya poets entertain us with their poems in the exact perfect time in their melodramatic stories. Those are all classical features of fiction and legends and not actual historic accounts.
It is amazing that some people still believe that poets such as Imru' Al-Qays (the Hamlet of Arabia), Antara (the Achilles of Arabia), and Qays Ibn Al-Mulawah and Layla (the Romeo and Juliet of Arabia) really existed and they are not a figment of the imagination of Umayyad and Abbasid era storytellers. This is no different than believing that Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet really existed and are not the figment of the imagination of Shakespeare. Traditionalists even accept as Jahiliya poetry poems alleged to be from the time of Ibrahim (a different millennia) or uttered by Adam in the obituary of his son, all said in easy to understand Arabic I might add! Of course, anyone with common sense should doubt that people at the time of Ibrahim even heard of this Arabic, let alone composed poetry in it.
If traditionalists want to compare the supposed preservation of so-called Jahiliya poetry to something, then they can compare it to Hadiths. There is evidence from those bodies of literature themselves that they were spread by the Qasassin (the storytellers). Those are entertainers who went from one town to the next telling their stories. Of course, the storytellers had to give the audience what they wanted to hear. Hence, for liberal audiences, they would tell the story of Imru-Al-Qays and his romantic endeavors or Qays Ibn Al-Mulawah and Layla. In more conservative towns, the storytellers would tell the stories of the monotheist poets and tales of courage and valor. Later, the same storytellers propagated Hadiths as the Abbasid theocracy took over and demand for religious programming increased. There is evidence from Bukhari's bibliography that he started out as one of those storytellers himself, traveling from town to town and gathering audiences like the circus. The following extract from Imam Bukhari's biography, recounts one of his performances while traveling to Baghdad:
"People had heard about the Imam Bukhari's extraordinary memory. They decided to test him to see if the Imam was worthy of the attributes that were being issued to him. One hundred different ahaadeeth were chosen that had their testimonials and text altered. These altered ahaadeeth were to be recited to Imam Bukhari by ten people. By now, a crowd had gathered to witness the outcome of this deliberate test. One by one, each altered tradition was recited. The Imam remarked at the end of each recital: "Not of my knowledge."
After all the traditions had been presented, the Imam demonstrated the power of his memory by correcting the testimonial and text of each tradition in order."
Of course, the above tale sounds more like circus entertainment and not the scientific endeavor that traditionalists paint. This unfortunate situation was described here:
31.6. Among the people, there are those who buy distracting sayings, to divert from the path of The God without knowledge, and take it in vain. These have incurred a shameful retribution.
In summary, so-called Jahiliya poetry has been proven to be a product of Umayyad and Abbasid dynasties' entertainers and political propagandists, the same social forces that produced Hadiths. The natural law of supply and demand and the storytellers spreading their tales from town to town explains the widespread dissemination of such fabrications without the need for a systematic conspiracy.
(To be Continued)IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER:
2:2. This is the book no doubt in it, a guidance for the forethoughtful.
This article reflects my personal interpretation of the verses of the reading as of February 3, 2005. I will try to improve my understanding of the great reading and the universe, except if The God wills and perhaps my Lord guides me to what is nearer in rationality. Please verify all information within for yourself as commanded in 17:36, and remember that simply "none" is the forethoughtful answer to 45:6. If The God willed, the outcome of this article will be beneficial.